The Mystery of the Sherlock Holmes Stamps

November 14, 2011 4:23 AM

In the cufflink of Sherlock Holmes, as depicted in this stamp, you will find the first clue. (It's the letter O.) In the remaining stamps in this collection you will find the remaining clues, which spell a five-letter word.

The solution can be found here.

posted by twoleftfeet (28 comments total)

BE SURE TO INJECT YOUR COCAINE.
posted by Horace Rumpole at 4:34 AM on November 14, 2011 [18 favorites]

I should have included a link to the top page of The Philatelic Sherlock Holmes, but rare is the person with simultaneous interests in detective fiction and philately.
posted by twoleftfeet at 4:41 AM on November 14, 2011

Knowing what I'm looking for, and with the large jpeg on the second link, the letters are easy to find. Was the fact that there were clues embedded in the stamps known when they were published? I'll admit that I didn't read all the text of the second link, but it all seemed to be quotes from the stories, or from other people talking about the stories.
posted by KGMoney at 4:42 AM on November 14, 2011

LMFAO?
posted by yeti at 4:53 AM on November 14, 2011

I am sad it wasn't CRIME. Because, without crime, Holmes is just a smarty-pants who sits around in his dressing gown all day, playing the violin and doing coke.
posted by GenjiandProust at 5:37 AM on November 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

EDLYO.

Hmmmmmm, I'm going to go with YODEL. What self respecting secret message in postage stamps wouldn't incite the masses to yodel?
posted by lydhre at 5:45 AM on November 14, 2011 [6 favorites]

If it's OBAMA, the saddest parts of the Internet are going to explode.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 5:48 AM on November 14, 2011

Oop...too early for me to not read the (inside)... didn't realize the solution was known. Now I wish it was OOOPS.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 5:50 AM on November 14, 2011

DRINK MORE LAUDANUM
posted by middleclasstool at 6:01 AM on November 14, 2011 [5 favorites]

I misread the E as a G, and wondered what the connection was between Holmes and GODLY.
posted by muddgirl at 6:54 AM on November 14, 2011

That... is merely a very juvenile scavenger hunt.

FAIL.
posted by The Confessor at 7:07 AM on November 14, 2011

You say Sherlock Holmes, and I look at the entire corpus sitting on my shelf, and I am just trying to figure out who I can bill for this on a Monday. Nice post. Fink.
posted by timsteil at 7:11 AM on November 14, 2011

Is the five letter word STAMP?
posted by Malice at 7:19 AM on November 14, 2011

Odyle:

The Odic force (also called Od [õd], Odyle, Önd, Odes, Odylic, Odyllic, or Odems) is the name given in the mid-19th century to a hypothetical vital energy or life force by Baron Carl von Reichenbach.

And of course this is reinforced by the fall from Reichenbach Falls in the fifth panel. Look into the eyes of the characters in these pictures; these men are bursting with the Odic force.

(Or they are infernally horny for one another.)
posted by pracowity at 7:28 AM on November 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

Holmes is just a smarty-pants who sits around in his dressing gown all day, playing the violin and doing coke.

So Eugene Fodor?

I know, obscure. But somewhere in the world, at least one fan of classical musical just stood up and applauded.
posted by Bunny Ultramod at 7:33 AM on November 14, 2011

These men are bursting with the Odic force.
Or they are infernally horny for one another.

Given the recent adaptations I've seen*, I'll go with the latter.

* Those adaptations range from Brotastic (Downey/Law movie) to... well, British (Sherlock).
posted by maryr at 7:36 AM on November 14, 2011

OK, I am a dumbass. I found all the letters pretty quickly, then sat there for a good minute and a half trying to figure out what secret meaning YODEL held for Sherlock Holmes, worried that I had somehow skipped over a story in my reading.
posted by phunniemee at 8:29 AM on November 14, 2011

Dag, yo. I was hoping the solution was gonna be HOMES.
posted by bpm140 at 8:33 AM on November 14, 2011

@GenjiAndProust

really though, what else is there
posted by This, of course, alludes to you at 8:53 AM on November 14, 2011

is it...'Ghostbusters 2?'
posted by sexyrobot at 8:56 AM on November 14, 2011

Because, without crime, Holmes is just a smarty-pants who sits around in his dressing gown all day, playing the violin and doing coke.

Careful, GenjiandProust; you've just dissed half the Mefites out there.

/ Kidding!
// I'm sure you all have lovely dressing gowns!
/// Know where I can score some decent stuff?
posted by IAmBroom at 9:02 AM on November 14, 2011

O V L T N? A crummy commercial??
posted by brenton at 9:18 AM on November 14, 2011 [2 favorites]

I'm glad I found the solution myself before I read the spoilers here in the comments. Very uncool.
posted by Daddy-O at 9:58 AM on November 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

I can't find the D? Anyone?
posted by marienbad at 1:04 PM on November 14, 2011

You'll probably need a magnifying glass and the actual stamps,
or the set of postcards to find them. (Or, if you're willing to wait for the 367k jpg file to load, here's a giant image.)

Aww. How cute.
posted by Gordafarin at 1:54 PM on November 14, 2011

marienbad: "I can't find the D? Anyone?"

Bottom-middle of the Baskervilles stamp.
posted by Gordafarin at 1:55 PM on November 14, 2011

I am an unabashed Sherlock Holmes geek. You may keep your Nietzsche, your Freud, your Nabokov, your tattered eighty-pound copies of War and Peace. I need none of your intense literary edification. Give me fog rolling through the London streets and Holmes scratching away at his violin before suddenly--Mrs. Hudson starts up the stairs with a mysterious client and an unsolvable problem. Give me those things and a comfy chair and I am as happy as a cat having its ears scratched.

Having said that, here's where I stole it. Have you seen my monograph Letting Others Express Yourself?? Oh dear I'm out of cat gut.
posted by Twang at 1:58 PM on November 14, 2011

Thank you Gordafarin, Can't believe I missed it!
posted by marienbad at 8:14 AM on November 15, 2011